Strike two, book

[jethrien]

I have this newish cookbook that has the most fabulous sounding recipes in it. It's incredibly fussy, though. Which I'm sometimes willing to deal with, but only if the results warrant it. So far, we haven't had a true hit. (Well, actually, no--B won't stop talking about the pinenut tart, which I thought was very good, but no one else seemed all that enthusiastic about.) This is also the book that involved the ranting a couple months ago because they hid a four hour wait in the middle of a step and also completely screwed up the math on the number of cups of cream, listing a cup less in the ingredients list than it eventually required over the course of the recipe.

I think I found another seriously damaged recipe.

I made an orange-glazed olive oil cake last night. The recipe called for 4 eggs, 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp baking soda, which I thought was odd in context, but did. The picture is of a very dense, moist cake maybe two inches high. What I got (haven't tasted it yet, as it's for tonight) appears to be a fluffy pound cake about four inches high. Which, in retrospect, is exactly what one should expect with that much leavener. I'm actually wondering whether the cake they photographed had any leavener at all besides the eggs. It really looked more like the texture of a deliberately fallen souffle.

So we haven't eaten it yet. If we do, and it's tasty enough to consider making a second time, perhaps I'll keep the book. If it's only mediocre, though, I'm thinking that I should probably stop bothering. The writer and/or editor clearly didn't care enough to make sure the recipes make sense. The Walnut Layer Cake with Apple-Caramel Filling and Calvados Cream Cheese Icing sounds amazing. What do you want to bet it takes two days to make, and comes out disappointingly?

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Clearly someone didn't do a good job copyediting this thing. You could always write the publisher to complain about the errors in the ingredients lists. They might even change it in a reprint. I mean, you'll get nothing, but you might help future cooks.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

...or write a bitchy Amazon review, which may be what I actually did.

Looking at the reviews, they're really mixed. The super positive ones coo over how exciting this cookbook is and how they can't wait to make everything in it. The annoyed ones are lists of typos. I wasn't paying that much attention, but the ingredients are all listed in cups/tsp, oz, and grams. Apparently the weight of a "cup" of flour varies from one recipe to another.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

What, are you supposed to use a hydraulic press to pack the flour into a cup in some and only lightly rest it in others?

This sounds like a silly cookbook.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

It's like they sort of half paid attention while someone else made the recipe, and then threw in some stuff when they realized they couldn't remember what happened.

[fyrna.livejournal.com]

> ...or write a bitchy Amazon review, which may be what I actually did.

Which is what you *should* do.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Yeesh. It sounds like they didn't bother with a tester for the entire cookbook. A good tester would've caught and/or clarified all those mistakes. Especially the cream thing.

And olive oil cakes usually ARE rather flat and dense. I'd include some leavening other than eggs, but probably less than half of what you listed.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Flat and dense was what I wanted. This thing puffed up with a dome an inch or so above the rim of the pan.

I may give it one more shot. Although this time, instead of spending two hours prepping the damn oranges, I'll throw in a jar of marmalade and call it done.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

Yeah, sometimes you want fussy recipes that turn out spectacularly, and sometimes you just want a damn cake. And one that works.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to do fussy, if it turns out spectacularly. What I object to is fussy when it doesn't make a difference or when it actually doesn't come out particularly well at all.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

And this is why I so rarely bother with fussy recipes. I'm routinely underwhelmed.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I've had some that were unquestionably worth it. My empanadas are a three-day process that are a work of beauty. I make amazing pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Lemon meringue pie is a royal pain in the ass that's delicious. But those all turn out, damn it.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I haven't done empanadas in a long time, but my tamales are well worth the day of labour.

[fairylane.livejournal.com]

Pumpkin...cinnamon rolls?

I'm listening. Is there a recipe somewhere?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

King Arthur Flour website. They call for their special filling, but I did fine with a cinnamon/brown sugar/butter mix.

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Ooooh this is totally what I'm doing with the leftover pumpkin after I make pumpkin bread.